TVSquad

I'll be the first to agree that at some point after Chris Moneymaker's World Series win, poker on TV got a little bit out of hand. For a while it seemed that you couldn't turn on the TV without stumbling over some new poker-based show. Things have settled down somewhat lately, with a few survivors remaining. For my poker watching vote, there remains a big three. The World Series, despite ESPN's screwed up scheduling, World Poker Tour, and the newcomer, High Stakes Poker.

Now it looks like two of the three could be in trouble. It seems that the expected dates for the renewals of WPT and High Stakes over at GSN have come and gone. The speculation is that the new CEO at GSN, David Goldhill, wants to move away from the interest in poker that the former CEO, Rich Cronin, brought to the network. Goldhill would instead like to get back to more traditional game shows.

If you thought that the poker craze had finally run its course, NBC would like to disagree with you. The network has announced a new late-night poker show called Poker After Dark. Beginning January 2nd, the hour long show will air Monday through Friday at 2:05AM. On Saturday there will be a one hour recap called "the director's cut."

The format sounds similar to many of the other poker shows currently on television. A group of the world's top pros, all miked of course, will compete for a $120,000 jackpot. And if you watch poker on TV, you can probably already guess the names that have been announced for the series. Those include Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Gus Hansen, Erick Lindgren, Chris Ferguson, Doyle Brunson, and Phil Ivey.